SHINING THE LIGHT ON NIGHTSHADES

Are you one of the many who avoids the family of nightshades like the plague because you think they are going to cause pain and inflammation in your body?

I’m talking about the highly nutritious…

Potatoes

Tomatoes

Eggplant

Bell peppers

Goji berries

Okra

Tomatillos

Chili peppers

Paprika

Cayenne pepper

After poking around to find out why these plants that grow in the shade and bloom at night have historically received such a bad rap, here’s the best trace of evidence I could dig up…

It seems that back in the late 1700’s, a group of wealthy aristocrats regularly dined on pewter plates. Unfortunately for them, these plates contained lead.

After dining on tomato-containing cuisines, the high acidity in the tomatoes leached lead from the pewter plates, which caused lead poisoning and the death of these highfalutin aristocrats. Not connecting the dots between the tomato acids and the lead leaching from the pewter plates, the unfortunate tomato got pinned as the cause of their demise.

This seemed to be the beginning of the “deadly nightshade” myth that still haunts the family to this day. But what about the rest of the innocent nightshade relatives who had nothing to do with the lead-leaching crime scene?

Guilty as charged, by association.

The more you research into this topic, the more confusing it gets. The typical consumer is terrified of the deadly nightshade rumors and recommendations of well-meaning practitioners who warn of the dire consequences of a single bite of the railroaded nightshade bunch.

Maybe it’s time to reopen this cold case and consider a fresh, new perspective about the nightshades, what’s really going on, and all their potential nutritional benefits.

First, let’s examine why so many people won’t touch a nightshade with a 10-foot pole…

Fear of swelling and inflammation

They say one bite causes joint stiffness and pain

Some complain of digestive upsets if they dare consume

Others complain of heartburn

Doctors stand behind ominous warnings not to consume

Desire to play it safe rather than be sorry

Ok, I hear you. And I’ll even add that these are valid complaints. HOWEVER…

Could it be that these reactive symptoms are not actually caused by the nightshades themselves but rather as a result of an interaction with another factor?

Hmmm… This smells of the tomato-pewter crime scene. The plot thickens…

In a prior blog post (see THE CAUSE OF ALL DISEASE), I explained about “lingering pathogenic factors,” or LPF’s. These are the bugs that take up long term residency in your body as a result of past infections.

These LPF’s fester away and patiently wait for the opportune moment when you are your weakest and most vulnerable to rear their ugly heads and create havoc with your health. I’m talking about things like bacterial and viral infections that have been hanging around for years in your body.

Things like bacterial superstrains such as streptococcus that are now antibiotic resistant from past years of popping antibiotics like M&M’s. Or viral infections like the deadly Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) that probably struck you as a child before the virus was actually discovered in 1964 and was called something else, like the mumps.

My hat’s off to Anthony William for his many decades of tireless crusading to help suffering humanity from the long term effects of EBV and strep. In his book, Medical Medium, he brings to light a whole new awareness of the devastations of these pathogenic infections that often strike in childhood as tonsillitis, mumps or mono, then become an LPF, just simmering away in your tissues and organs to strike again later in life as a more serious autoimmune disease.

I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with nightshades…? Everything. Keep reading…

This brings me to the subject of alkaloids. This is why nightshades are considered “poisonous.” These are active chemical components found in them…

Tropane

Nicotine

Capsaicin

Solanine

Tropanes are only found in non-food nightshade plants, so one less concern as it pertains to this conversation.

Nicotine is also found in non-food nightshade plants, so no need to worry about that one either.

Capsaicin is what makes certain peppers “hot.” Like jalapenos. Interestingly, capsaicin has known benefits. It boosts metabolism and kills infections. Hmmm…

Capsaicin gets blamed for causing joint pain or heartburn pain when eaten, claiming that it affects the nerve endings.

But wait, ironically, capsaicin’s heat-producing ability is used in topical analgesic lotions to relieve and manage pain. Confused yet?

Solanine seems to be the primary culprit under attack when it comes to evaluating the dangers of nightshades. Wouldn’t you know, while tomatoes are in the nightshade bunch and the original villain from 3 centuries ago, they do not even contain solanine!

Yet others who are not even related to the nightshade family carry the same curse because they are solanine containing—namely, blueberries, gooseberries, and artichokes.

But here is the most interesting tidbit of all—solanine is produced by the nightshade bunch as a defensive mechanism against insects and predators. That’s right, solanine is a natural bug repellent. Hmm, again…

So besides killing infections and repelling bugs, what else are these alkaloid-containing, night-blooming, shade-growing foods good for…?

Let’s say you are like the rest of the population and happen to have some of these LPF’s that have taken up residency in your gut or joints somewhere along the line in your life. What do you think the natural bug-repelling, infection-fighting, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, scavenger-consuming action of these amazing nightshades is going to do to these LPF’s when they meet head on?

Declare war!

The nightshades are not the cause of your pain or symptoms, the war to defend you against the LPF’s is the cause!

We all know that when there is war against pathogenic factors in the body, there is die off. Die off creates detox reactions.

Is this starting to add up to an entirely different perspective on nightshades?

The nightshades, that have been convicted for going on 3 centuries of heinous crimes against your body, are actually innocent and powerful defenders on a mission to search and destroy the devastating LPF’s that are the root cause of your autoimmune diagnoses.

The body does not attack itself like we’ve been lead to believe in the case of autoimmunity, but your infinitely wise immune system (your defensive qi) does attack invading LPF’s.